Saturday, January 8, 2011

With the Merrell Barefoot line coming out, it's useful to note that Merrell's parent company, Wolverine, also makes the Patagonia line of shoes.

Wolverine factory

Patagonia pretty much invented the modern notion of corporate responsibility, and one of the the reasons I'm happy to patronize Patagonia is that they're the model for how to run a business, IMHO. (Plus they make the best outdoor clothing available, period.)

So I thought it would be interesting to folks to share this link from Patagonia's inspection team examining a Wolverine factory in China. I don't know that this place will be making the Merrell Barefoot line (for all I know they'll be using slave labor) but I expect they're a pretty decent business for Patagonia to have partnered with them.

By the way, years back Chouinard Equipment supn off from Patagonia and became Black Diamond Equipment. I recently heard a BD product tester describe his job thusly: "My job is to make sure my friends don't die." Patagonia runs their business the same way. Hopefully, so does Wolverine.